The Legend of Zelda: The Curse of Three
by Aeris Deathscythe
Summary: REVISED! The king of Hyrule is marrying his three daughters off. One to a prince, one to a Sheikah, and one to a pirate. But Ganon wants Zelda and the Tri-force of Wisdom. Can Captain Link save the day? I DO NOT OWN ZELDA, NINTENDO DOES.
1. Daughters Three

REVISED: No major changes, just added more detail…

AN: Heh. scratches head Yeah, a third Zelda fic from me…. It's not like I haven't finished the other ones……J Check those out too by the way! Hope you guys like this! It takes place way before OoT, but still in Hyrule with all our favorite races and places.

His name was Sheik. Not very creative. He was Sheik of the Sheikah; given his peoples' root name as a sign of his noble destiny. Noble destiny… He was tracking down a run away princess for Din's sake! Countless times she had escaped and countless times he had brought her back; either kicking and screaming or unconscious, always slung over his shoulder before and after they would mount his horse.

As a Sheikah, he was bound to the royal family of Hyrule, and because of his 'noble' destiny -whatever the hell that was going to be- he'd taken over as the princesses' guardian two years ago. The other two girls _never_ ran away, but Nadia…. 

Nadia seemed to have taken up the position as the bane of his existence.

And right now, she didn't even have a clue that he had already found her. She had gone to the shipyards again, and was hiding in one of the storage sheds. It was debatable; Sheik mused as he watched her look furtively around, whether she was better off running or hiding from him. It really didn't matter; he would bring her back either way. 

His footsteps were soundless as he ran catlike down the shed's support beams. Within a matter of seconds he was right above her, and just as she looked up, he had already dropped the twenty feet to land silently behind her.

But quick as flash she turned and caught him square in the face with a deku nut, followed by a sharp kick to the crotch. He was fairly protected there because of his armor, but she had enough power to make it hurt like hell anyway. 

Nadia took the liberty of running away from him while he was too stunned and in pain to follow. Sheik liked Nadia the least of king's three daughters.

When the pain had lessened, Sheik went after her, more than a little annoyed. To his surprise though, he found her standing at the edge of dock, facing him. A light wind caused the water to ripple, and the moon had cast a white light on the darkness of the black waves. It was a strange sight for him to see. The night was peaceful, and against that backdrop the fiery princess seemed to not quite belong, yet belong all the same.

Her black hair was slightly messed, though in her usual braid, and her expression was strangely empty. "I guess it's futile, isn't it?" she said, and her eyes were dim with resignation.

"Yes," Sheik replied, walking slowly towards her. Would she actually come willingly this time? His steps were silent on the wooden boards of the dock, and even as he walked in his slow and easy gate it was obvious that at any second he could spring into action and put his perfected muscles to good use. But she did not take flight.

"Will you teach me to fight, and move like you do? Like a Sheikah?" Nadia asked, lifting her chin in a hopeful plea.

"Why, so you can have a better chance of escaping?" He stopped in front of her, and lifted an eyebrow. He towered over her in every respect.

Nadia scowled. "If you teach me, you have my word that I will not run away."

Sheik's answer was short and to the point "No."

"Why not?" she asked politely, hoping to gain some courtesy points.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you take me for a fool?"

Her onyx eyes flared, sparkling with anger. "How dare you not take my word!"

"We're leaving now," Sheik said, ignoring her anger like he always did. She couldn't play the angry princess role very well. She came off as an angry peasant girl trying to be a princess…or something like that. "So either I take you back by force or you come along like an adult."

She glared at him but nodded. He whistled for his horse and it obediently came a few seconds later, stopping short at the dock. Sheik stepped to the side and made sure that Nadia walked in front of him.

She mounted first, and he second, placing his arms around her and grabbing the reins. If she were to sit behind him she would most likely try to jump off while the horse was still moving, and Sheik couldn't have that, so he always made her sit in front.

Nadia was quiet as they made their way back to the palace, something Sheik was thankful for. It wasn't really that he disliked the girl-he actually found her quite amusing-she just happened to be the one that gave him the most trouble.

The Princess Zelda barely needed his attention, and the youngest, Rose, looked up to him. He was a hero in her eyes. But Nadia…Nadia saw him as her prison guard. He'd gotten more bruises from her than his training as a Sheikah.

"Do you even care why I run away?" Nadia asked suddenly, shifting her position slightly, causing her body to brush against his even further. It didn't bother her, not really, because not a day went by where they didn't experience some sort of physical contact; like being slung over his shoulder or dragged by her wrist. And she was used to his presence, and might even go as far to say that she was comforted by it. But that didn't make up for the fact that he annoyed the hell out of her.

"No."

He could practically hear her glare, and her body stiffened in his arms. "I hate you."

"I don't care."

* * *

Rose was used to getting her way. She was the youngest, after all, so that was of course how things went. But this time, it wasn't working. That morning, as soon as they had awoken, her father had summoned his daughters to him, for her had something important to tell them. And he was now remaining firm on his decision, no matter what Rose said.

"But Daddy," she whined, "why do I have to go? The prince won't care about me, not while Zelda's there!" This was true enough. Rose was pretty, possessing beautiful red hair and dark blue eyes, but no one gave her a second glance whenever Zelda was in her company. 

Princess Zelda was the one that caught everyone's eyes. Her hair was gold in color, and her eyes were a clear, crystal blue. She was exceedingly lovely, and adding to the fact that she possessed the Tri-Force of wisdom, she instantly became the center of attention. And the only reason anyone would look twice at Nadia was because of her sharp tongue and violent outbursts.

"I understand, daughter, but you haven't met the prince. Give him a chance. I think you underestimate your own beauty," the king replied smoothly.

Rose stuck out her lower lip and pouted. "Where's Nadia? Isn't she supposed to be going too?"

Her father sighed, tapping his fingers on the armrest of his throne. "I'm sure Sheik will be arriving soon."

Nadia never went anywhere against her will unless Sheik forced her too. On cue, a loud scuffling noise was heard outside the door then Nadia stumbled in, Sheik following closely behind. They didn't look the least bit tired for the previous night's escapade. They were too used to it.

"I see you've decided to wear proper attire, Nadia," the king remarked. Nadia glared at him and pulled uncomfortably at her blue dress.

"Honestly, if Sheik hadn't--," she stopped, looking suddenly thoughtful.

"I don't think I like the look of that," Sheik commented, eyeing her warily. He stepped past Nadia and bowed to the king and the other two princesses.

Rose was the first to notice his black eye. "Did Nadia do that to you?" she asked, glowering at her sister.

Sheik nodded, then glared at Nadia, and pulled her along with him to the throne, making her trip over her dress; she'd been trying to sneak out unnoticed.

"So what's going on?" Nadia asked, wrenching her arm away from Sheik. Rose began to sulk again, and their father sighed once more.

It was Zelda who answered, speaking for the first time. "We are going to Tevir to visit Prince Leon."

Nadia sent her father a suspicious look. "So what, you're marrying us off?"

The king coughed uneasily, and Sheik grunted in disgust. Nadia looked up at him in brief surprise before turning her attention to her father, angry.

"That's it, isn't it? So why don't you just send Zelda? He sure as hell won't care about me and Rose anyway, not if she's around," she spit out. She couldn't imagine herself marrying anyone by force, especially not a prince.

Zelda frowned at the outburst, and it might have been her imagination, but she thought her father looked a little green. He hadn't even scolded Nadia for her language like he usually did, which was odd in itself.

There was something he wasn't telling them. He was sending the she and her sisters away for a reason, not so Prince Leon could pick and choose his bride, but for some other purpose. But he wouldn't do anything to put them in danger, would he?

"May I ask when we are to depart, father?" she asked quietly, and both of her sisters sent her angry looks, which she ignored.

"Tomorrow morning."

* * *

"Cap'n Link! A letter! A letter for you sir!"

The captain's third mate, a man by the name of Mur, came running up to him, a letter in his hands.

Before opening it he ordered his men to lay off the frightened crew of Farore's Wind, Hyrule's fastest messenger ship. He watched, amused, as the men of Farore's Wind practically fell over themselves in the hurry to get away.

He looked down at the letter in his hands, and then to Mur, who was looking at him eagerly. It wasn't every day that a pirate received a letter from the king of Hyrule. Link pulled out his knife and cut the royal seal, then unfolded the letter. After reading it carefully, he grinned.

"Whut does it say?" Mur couldn't resist asking, though it was really none of his business.

Link smirked. "There be a weddin' in me future, Mur." 

Mur still looked confused, but Link paid him no heed and walked up to the ship's helm. Instantly his crew became quiet. "We set sail for Hyule!" Link announced, and then added with a wink, "There'll soon be a woman on board, three, in truth. So let's 'ope the superstitions aren't true, aye?"

AN: I really 'ope you lot liked it! Please, no flames, constructive criticism only. It hurts my feelings….sobs It'll get better! I promise! Review! 


	2. Cap'n Link

AN: You guys are awesome!!!! Sigh. I love reviews. So you guys want more detail and description? Hee. I'll see what I can do, but I make no promises. ( By the way, it should be easy to tell where I got my inspiration from, hee. By the way, I know next to nothing about boats, so don't hold that against me.  
  
Starting the voyage to Tevir to see Prince Leon was not as easy as it should have been.  
  
Firstly, Sheik had to wait twenty minutes for Nadia to finish arguing with her father. He was not joining them on the trip, which made Sheik wonder if something was going on that he didn't know about. And then Nadia had gone to her room and locked the door, refusing to go. Sheik only managed to get her on the ship by promising to teach her how to sword-fight, and as he was a man of his word, he couldn't back out of the deal no matter how much it would suck to be him later on.  
  
When she did finally leave her room, she was wearing form hugging pants and a linen shirt instead of a dress. After staring at her for a whole minute he finally said, "Oh what the hell, I don't care."  
  
The voyage proceeded smoothly after that, and as he had promised, Sheik began teaching Nadia how to fight, though he had to call an end to it when her long black braid hit him in one crimson eye, making it redder than it already was. Nadia's hair reached far down her back in length, and was jet black in color. Her hair was the only thing that she liked about her looks, but since having long hair was considered 'princessly', Nadia wore it in a braid just for spite. It wasn't that Nadia wasn't pretty-she was, beautiful in fact, according to many people- but she just had it in her head that she wasn't. After all, it was her sisters who received all the compliments.  
  
Nadia assumed that she would never get married because really, what man would want her? And what man could she possibly want? One that didn't try to control her, but one that could. Nadia sighed and plopped down on the deck whilst Sheik leaned against the crow's nest. He was scowling at her, and she just grinned back at him. She was slightly disappointed that they had stopped; she'd been doing very well and having a lot of fun.  
  
Her eyes fell on Sheik again. She was sweating in her lightweight clothes, so wasn't he hot in that outfit of his? He was covered from head to foot in a spandex type of material of many patches of blue, all separated by a white lining. His wrists and forearms were wrapped in a white cloth that looked remarkably like bandages, as was his chest and the top of his head. The lower half of his face was covered by the large collar attached to the ripped shirt that fell over the front half of his body, and the symbol of the gossip stones was on it in red and blue.  
  
It was an interesting outfit, Nadia had to give him that, though for all of the secrets that the Sheikah race held, she had to wonder why showing every curve of their body was fine, but showing their face was not. Only a few of the higher ranking Sheikah kept their faces uncovered, and certainly, as a guardian to the royal family and one with the 'noble' destiny, Sheik held that right too, but he still kept his face covered. The only thing Nadia knew about how Sheik looked was his crimson eyes and gold-blond hair that his bandages did not cover. She was very curious to see if he was handsome or not, because really, who wouldn't be? He had a great body though. All the Sheikah did. And why wouldn't they? All they did was train all day.  
  
Nadia sighed. Maybe she should work on a plan to unmask Sheik.  
  
* * *  
  
Zelda was standing at the bow of the boat when she spotted it; a ship in the distance. As it drew nearer, her eyes caught sight of a black flag waving wildly in the wind.  
  
A pirate ship.  
  
"Pirate ship! There's a pirate ship ahead!" she cried, pointing urgently at the approaching menace.  
  
One of the sailors looked up. "So it is," he said, only a small amount of nervousness in his tone. He looked back down and continued working. None of the other sailors were even paying attention to the news. Shouldn't they be worried? There was a pirate ship approaching for Din's sake!  
  
Zelda ran up to the helm, her heart pounding in her chest. Captain Norom would know what to do. "Captain! There are pirates approaching!"  
  
Captain Norom, a tall man with graying hair, did not look the least bit fazed. "I know," he said, and suddenly Zelda understood and her eyes widened in realization. She wasn't the holder of the Tri-Force of Wisdom for nothing. "You're taking us to them, aren't you," she accused, and Norom merely looked at her. That was all she needed, and she took flight to Sheik. He would know what to do, wouldn't he?  
  
When she reached him, he was scowling at Nadia, one eye shut tight, as she stared at him, a mischievous glint in her eyes.  
  
"Sheik! They're taking us to pirates!"  
  
Sheik knew enough to know that Zelda would never lie or overreact, and so he believed her immediately and completely. So did Nadia, and she jumped to her feet, eyes flashing.  
  
"Tell me you didn't know," Nadia ordered Sheik, and he complied.  
  
"I didn't know."  
  
Nadia was still eyeing him distrustfully but the captain stepped forward.  
  
"The Sheikah knew nothing. The king though that it would compromise his position."  
  
"The king?" Zelda repeated. Father, you didn't.  
  
"King's orders my lady." The Captain proceeded to call for his cabin boy, who quickly ran up and handed him a scroll. The Captain promptly handed it to Sheik as Rose emerged from below deck and joined them.  
  
Unrolling it, his eyes traveled from word to word till at last he looked sick to his stomach. Nadia was trying to lean over his shoulder but was not succeeding due to her height. Sheik had a good six inches on her five- four frame.  
  
"What? Let me see!"  
  
Wordlessly he handed it to her, and when she too had read it, she chucked the scroll at the Captain's head and let fly a string of curses that made her younger sister blush. No one tried to calm her, not even Sheik, but finally Rose had to ask, "What is it? What's going on?"  
  
"Dear old Dad," Nadia spit out, "has made a deal with a pirate. One of us has to marry the Captain of the Wind Waker."  
  
Rose gasped and toppled over, but Sheik caught her quickly.  
  
"Now's not the time highness," he said, but she did not move from his arms and only stared at her sister in shock and disbelief.  
  
"One of us has to marry a pirate?" she whispered, as the ship bared down on them. The pirates faces were nearly visible now.  
  
"I will go," Zelda volunteered, not wanting her sisters to go through that misery, but Captain Norom shook his head.  
  
"No. It was agreed that Captain Link would choose."  
  
"Well he'll obviously choose Zelda, but we can't let that happen," Nadia proclaimed fiercely.  
  
"We can't?" Zelda said, confused, and Rose nodded.  
  
"You're the oldest. We can't let a pirate become king of Hyrule, can we?" The ship came to the side, dropping anchor  
  
Hurt drifted through her. Was that the only reason? "I suppose not."  
  
The pirates leaned in, anxious, whilst both crews of both ships set up a bridge between the two ships.  
  
"But I won't let him take one of us either!" Nadia exclaimed, stealing a sword from the knight closest to her who jumped back in surprise but did not stop her. Sheik rolled his eyes, but Rose looked calmer now at her sister's bravery.  
  
"Are ye goin' ta fight me?" a deep voice asked, sounding amused. All looked up to see a young man standing on the bridge between the two ships. He wore the usual pirates' clothing, faded brown cotton, button-fly pants, linen shirt, brown suede knee-high boots, and a dark green almost black tailcoat, complete with a black leather tri-corn hat and a green sash around his waist and hair. His hair was long and dark blond in color, but he was, unusually enough, clean-shaven. The pirate bowed from where he stood, pleased with their shocked looks. "Captain Link, at your service," he said, throwing a small wink at the girls.  
  
This didn't faze Nadia for too long.  
  
"I do not intend to come willingly," she told him, glaring daggers.  
  
The pirate actually looked interested. "Alrigh'," he said abruptly, "I'll make ye a deal." The three princesses, as well as Sheik, looked a little apprehensive at this statement, and exchanged nervous looks as the pirate walked the rest of the length of the bridge and jumped down onto the deck. Link gave Sheik a curious glance as his eyes scanned the group. "Wha' 'appened ta ye eye mate?" Sheik glared at him as best as he could with only one eye and Link shrugged. "Oh well. Anyway, I really don't care tha' ye were ne'er told of the arrangement," he continued, "but I'll give ye a chance ta break the deal." He paused, looking at the three girls, as if sizing them up. "If one of ye princesses can best me in swordplay, I'll let ye go."  
  
Sheik was too late in covering Nadia's mouth, as he had his hands full with Rose. "Fine," she said, and stepped forward as the crew of Nayru's Love moved out of the way.  
  
"It'd be a pity if ye won," Link commented, eyeing her up and down suggestively, "a real pity."  
  
Nadia growled at him in disgust, covering up Sheik's own. Link winked at her and drew his blade.  
  
Nadia darted forward with an inward strike but Link deflected it easily. She came at him with a couple more blows but he grinned at her as he blocked them all. "Is tha' all ye got?"  
  
She attacked him a few more times while everyone else looked on anxiously. Finally, Link thrust forward with his sword and disarmed her with a flick of his wrist. Everyone on board Nayru's Love ducked out of the way as her sword went sailing over their heads and landed with a splash in the ocean.  
  
Link chuckled and let the flat part of his blade rest on his shoulder while Nadia glared at him with pure hatred. "I admi' ye got some heart, lass, but ye should finish learnin' how ta fight firs'." Nadia's glared grew darker. "So I guess tha's it then?" Link sheathed his blade, seeing as the other two girls were not stepping forward.  
  
"Don't be so quick to disarm, captain. You might need that," a soft voice said, and Link quirked an eyebrow in amusement then unsheathed his blade once more.  
  
"Hav' at thee," he replied with a flourishing bow.  
  
AN: Yeah yeah yeah. I know, it's short, but what can I say? I just had to leave it off at that point. So what do you think? Man, writing Link's pirate accent is a pain. Hopefully it doesn't hurt my faithful readers, (and reviewers, wink wink, nudge nudge). Yeah, so did you guess that my inspiration was Pirates of the Caribbean? Hee. Anyway, I don't own that or Zelda. So, what are you waiting for? REVIEW!!! 


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